About Scouting

Scouts BSA- The Basics

Troop 964 is the first Scouts BSA girls troop to begin to serve Old Hickory Council. We will officially begin operating February 1st. Our troop number is taken in honor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which outlawed discrimination based on gender.

Parents are encouraged to volunteer as leaders, but they are not required to attend events with the youth.

Youth leadership is one of the key features of the Scouts BSA program. The senior patrol leader will call the meeting to order and facilitate all troop-wide announcements. Youth will then follow their patrol leaders to patrol meetings. Sometimes, these meetings can feel somewhat chaotic. This chaos is the result of our youth practicing and developing new leadership skills.

As in all things, practice is required to master that skill. Scouting provides a safe environment where youth can practice their leadership skills with adult advisers who assist when necessary.

New scouts enter the troop as part of ‘Raven Scouts’, a patrol where the focus is on acclimating to the troop and working on requirements for Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, and 1st Class ranks.

Many of the skills required for ranks will be covered during the Thursday night meetings or camping trips. However, your scout is able to work on requirements outside of the regular meetings and may ask any adult leader to sign off on a requirement when they are ready to show proficiency.

No merit badges are required to advance all the way to First Class. However, a youth may start working on any merit badges once she is a member of the troop. Summer camp and local merit badge workshops are great ways to work on merit badges outside of troop meetings.